Since Mauviel makes tin-lined copper cookware (among other things), perhaps that is why their customer service person made that suggestion. But for the life of me, there is no tin on a stainless steel roasting pan - no need for it.

Stoddards is an old-school cutlery dealer, located in Newton. They certainly do not repair cookware, but being old school and in business around here for eons they would know who does a good job at cookware repair. (They do the best knife sharpening in town, for what it's worth.) Here is their website, which has their contact info:

If the scratches are just teeny tiny hairline scratches or scuffs, you might try some stainless steel polish on them. I have a tube of some stuff I got at Williams Sonoma for a few dollars. It has lasted me forever. It really cleans up stainless steel like a charm.

As for dents, I am not sure what you mean. If it were dented that would be on the inside and outside. Is the metal pitted? That can happen with aluminum. I have also seen it happen with cheap stainless steel (which it seems your roasting pan is NOT).

I can deal with hairline scratches. The dents I'm talking here are like fork marks, little little ones, on the interior. We had a party this last weekend which included a turkey. Someone brought over an electric carving knife (with teeth) and started cutting on the turkey while it's still in the pan. I'm guessing that's where the little dents and scratches came from. I didn't have a good feeling at all when they started working on it, but I have never carved a turkey and they seemed to have the right tools, so I just stood back and work on other things. And of course I thought it couldn't be worse than being cut with a knife. I am still very grateful that someone dealt with the turkey. Heck, I can always buy another pan and frame it if I must.

Maybe I'll start using my pan more often and make more scratches on it to mask these ones :-) But until then, I'll still be looking at the marks with a broken heart.

I have a few more parties coming up until the New Year which I think I'll be using this pan, so I'll probably wait till then before I do anything to it. Maybe I'll get over it by then.

I was hoping that this pan will last at least a lifetime, so it would be nice to know where I can rejuvenate it before I pass it on to somebody. How does stainless steel polish work? Does it take out a thin layer off from whatever it's cleaning like an eraser?

To be honest, I'm a little bit disappointed when the Mauviel lady asked me to look up google. I really really wanted to pay them to fix it for me.

I'll give Stoddard's a call some time after the New Year if I don't get any suggestions. Thank you again!

I have a few gray hairs, which is not uncommon at my age. I think of them as proof that I am experienced. Little scratches in my roasting pans prove that I have been using them. Perhaps you can think about it that way. Or, you could think about keeping your roasting pan in the kitchen and get a nice turkey-sized serving platter for your guests to appreciate. Just immediately move the turkey from the pan onto the platter when it comes out of the oven. It has to rest before serving, anyway. Plus, then you can make the gravy in the pan with all the yummy turkey drippings. The other benefit of that approach is it is easier to carve when the turkey is on a platter - no roasting pan sides to get in the way.

Metal polish works on metal the same way that an emery board works on your fingernails or sandpaper works on wood. It takes away the high spots. The scratches that metal polish removes from stainless steel cookware are usually very very shallow. You don't have to worry about wearing out the pan by polishing it. On the other hand, if the scratch is so deep that you can feel it, polish won't help. Those kinds of scratches probably cannot be fixed at all, given that the surface is steel. I have never heard of a steel-equivalent of wood filler!

Here is a final thought. In one of my kitchen drawers is the rolling pin that my maternal grandmother used to make noodles. She came through Ellis Island in 1910 by herself at the age of 16 in order to join her husband-to-be, my grandfather in America. That rolling pin must be nearly 100 years old. It is smooth and warn with age. There are a few dark lines on it where there must have been scratches. They make me imagine how it must have been in her kitchen when she was an active mother of four, rolling out noodle dough and cutting it with a knife. All of those people are long since gone. It's a nice way to remember them.

Hello PoS, Thanks for a wonderful post. I, too, have some old utensils and the nicks and scratches are all little reminders of the history that they have been part of. Hopefully cutiepie721 will be able to see the scratches on her pan and just recall the nice dinner party.Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thank you PoS. That makes me feel so much better :-) This is my first roasting pan and my first turkey served (my mom would have laughed at me for actually buying a pan instead of using a disposable aluminum, but she can barely cook). The first is always the most painful, like they say.